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Companion Collections: The Ruth Stephan Poetry Collection at UT

The Yale Collection of American Literature, home to the Ruth Stephan Archive and the Tiger’s Eye Records, celebrates the Ruth Stephan Poetry Collection at the University of Texas Libraries Poetry Center. About the Collection, Kristen Hogan, English Literature and Women's and Gender Studies Librarian at UT writes:

“The new UT Libraries Poetry Center is located on the ground floor of the Perry-Castañeda Library. This dynamic space devoted to the powers and possibilities of poetry is made possible by a collaborative effort of the English Department, the New Writers Project, the Michener Center for Writers, and the UT Libraries.

We envision the new UT Libraries Poetry Center (within the UFCU Student Learning Commons) as an inspiring and welcoming home for poetry. Surrounded by wooden shelves lined with diverse and excellent collections of contemporary poetry, visitors will find a comfortable space in which to read, write, research, and enjoy live readings. This gathering of poetry began as the Ruth Stephan Poetry Collection, with a 1965 donation by poet, editor, and translator Ruth Stephan. Today, the collection focuses on contemporary U.S. poets and the thriving literary life sustained by small presses, with special focus on including works by UT community members. The collection includes writings by faculty, Michener Center Fellows, and New Writers Project graduates, with special attention to poetry by writers who share historically marginalized identities of our local communities: African American poets, Asian American poets, Chicana/o and Latina/o poets, Indigenous poets, and LGBTQ poets.

The Poetry Center builds on growing poetic energies on campus and in the city including our nationally-renowned creative writing MFA programs the Michener Center for Writers and the New Writers Project; our outstanding faculty poets and poetics scholars; local and campus presses and journals including the Bat City Review; and the annual workshops of CantoMundo, the national organization supporting the flourishing of Latina/o poetry.”